Automobile parking poses a concern in many areas, particularly in densely populated areas. In business centers, at airports and around shopping malls, parking spaces can be insufficient or difficult to find. The shortage of parking spaces, however, is only one problem for drivers; traditional parking schemes relegate drivers to trial-and-error hunting for parking which takes time and may generate frustration. Nonetheless, searching for parking may be preferable to the alternative: entrusting one's car to strangers at a valet parking facility.
In common "self-service" parking facilities, parking availability information provided to prospective patrons typically consists of a sign indicating whether the facility is full. If the facility is not full, typically no information is provided to vehicle operators concerning the quantity or location of available parking and the vehicle operators must rely on trial and error to find available parking spaces. Even though a vehicle operator entering a business district parking facility early in the day can assume parking spaces are more likely to be available in less readily accessible areas of the facility, in a business district at midday, or at shopping centers and airports at nearly all times, vehicle operators sporadically vacate parking spaces as dictated by individual agendas; one is just as likely to find a parking space in a readily accessible area of such a facility as in a less accessible area.
Further, even when parking spaces actually are readily available among parked vehicles, vehicle operators must proceed slowly in their search because already-parked vehicles visually obstruct the presence of available spaces. Also, without information about where to find available parking, drivers cannot exercise individual preferences; some vehicle operators might elect to walk from a less convenient space to save the time they might otherwise spend to find a more convenient space if they knew they could proceed directly to an available parking space.
Despite the problems encountered by vehicle operators at parking facilities, most existing parking monitoring systems focus on collecting information for management. Some prior art systems employ sensors at entrances and exits to parking facilities or sections of such facilities (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,298 to Schwarz). These sensors trigger a counter to determine the number of cars in the monitored area by subtracting the number of cars leaving the area from those that have entered. At least one of these monitoring systems also engage a timer to determine the aggregate usage time of the facility by summing the total time from the entry of the cars to their departure (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,615 to Sioufi). These systems profess to be useful in monitoring the usage of the parking facility.
Prior art curbside parking monitoring systems have been coupled with centralized signals which indicate general areas where drivers may find a curbside parking space (See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,114,128 and 3,166,732 to Ljungman). Upon sensing that a space adjacent a parking meter is vacant, the system signals drivers from a signpost at an intersection of the city block along which the parking space is vacant. The signal appears in a binary yes or no stating that one or more parking spaces are available in the adjacent block-long area. However, because the driver seeing a parking available signal is not advised of the number and specific location of parking spaces that are available in that block, the vehicle operator may proceed to the indicated location to find that a single available space has already been occupied or that the space will not accommodate his vehicle. In either situation, the binary availability signal may lead the vehicle operator on a fruitless quest.
Another monitoring system for a parking facility compares the number of cars within a designated area (determined by counting cars entering minus cars departing the area) with the number of spaces within that area. When the net number of cars equals the number of spaces, the system registers that the area is completely full and signals drivers to proceed to the next area (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,836 to McCauley). Unfortunately, such systems again only yield a binary yes or no signal to the drivers. Even if an area contains only one available space, even if the space is obstructed, will not accommodate the driver's car, or is otherwise undesirable, a driver still will be lead to that area.
These prior art systems are of only limited help to vehicle operators and do not resolve many concerns associated with parking an automobile. It is because of these and other background considerations that the present invention has evolved.